Gujarat Floods: New CM Bhupendra Patel chairs meet on flood-like situation in Saurashtra

Newly appointed Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel on Monday held a high-level meeting on the first day after assuming office to review the situation created due to heavy rains in Saurashtra and especially in Jamnagar and Rajkot districts. The Gujarat Chief Minister during the meeting also instructed the authorities to airlift stranded people in the state's Jamnagar district. 

New Gujarat CM holds high-level meeting

This latest development comes after heavy rains lashed parts of the Saurashtra region on Monday, resulting in the death of three people in Rajkot and Jamnagar because the swollen rivers, low-lying areas got flooded. This also prompted the Gujarat authorities to issue alerts and also deploy NDRF and SRF teams for rescue and relief operations. 

As per Jamnagar district's disaster management wing, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has been requested to airlift people stranded in some of the villages of Lakhavad and Jamnagar taluka. The release read, "Gujarat CM had also called the Jamnagar district collector and asked him to expedite rescue operations with the help of NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) and shift stranded people to safer places."

CM Bhupendra Patel also instructed the Rajkot collector and Rajkot Municipal Commissioner to move people living in low-lying areas to safer locations. Giving out further details of the Gujarat floods, the release said, "The Rajkot authorities informed the CM that as many as 1,155 people have already been evacuated. The CM asked the senior officials to deploy three teams of the NDRF in Rajkot and two in Jamnagar to help stranded people."

Gujarat Floods

As per the latest reporters, a woman and two men have drowned after their cars were washed away in heavy rains in two separate incidents in Lakhavad in Rajkot and Jam Jodhpur in Jamnagar, respectively. "Besides this, around 20 people were airlifted by IAF helicopters from various villages in Jamnagar district and 30 others were rescued as well," said Collector Sourabh Pardhi.

Rajkot Collector Arun Mahesh Babu informed that IAF choppers were preparing to airlift 22 people from three villages in his district. The Collector said, "So far, we have relocated a total of 1,155 people to safe places in the district, and the process continues. A team of the NDRF from Bhatinda in Punjab and two teams of SDRF from Banaskantha and Vadodara will be here to help in rescue operations."

Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast widespread rainfall across Gujarat till Wednesday, including 'heavy to very heavy rainfall with isolated extremely heavy rainfall in a few places in the districts of Saurashtra during the next four days'. It also said that parts of south Gujarat and other districts may also receive heavy to very heavy rainfall during this period. 

(Image: Republicworld.com)